Leah Brown is the president
of the Jacksonville Chapter of NABA, moved to Florida from St. Kitts as a
child.

By Hilary Reeves

Shoreside
Logistics Controller Leah Brown moved to Miami from the Caribbean Island of St.
Kitts when she was nine years old. The youngest of six siblings, the family
moved on the heels of her eldest brother’s decision to attend college in the United
States.

“My parents made
a big life decision based on an immediate family need,” Brown said of her
parent’s decision to emigrate.

Brown and her siblings
were so close in age – they’d be attending college virtually one right after
the other.

“My parents
thought it was the best decision for the family,” she said. “They thought there
were better opportunities for us here.”

Back in the
Caribbean, Brown’s father was a radio broadcaster for a Christian radio
station. Her mother worked at a bank. After the family’s move to Miami, the
search for new career paths began.

“We only had one
car, and my brothers needed it to get to work, so my dad would walk from our
house to different businesses looking for work,” she said. “He finally got a
job at an auto-parts store and worked his way up, then he got into insurance
and eventually retired from the insurance industry. My mom got a job at the
department store Woolworth’s, and then at a print shop, but ultimately retained
a job as a bookkeeper at her church where she recently retired. All this so my
brothers, sisters, and I could get a quality education and more opportunities.
We all knew from an early age that education was very important.”

Brown, in her office in Jacksonville, Florida.Photo by Brandi Hill (@brandihillcom/www.brandihill.com).

Changing direction

Brown’s first
love was computer programming.

“Before going
off to college, the only thing I didn’t know how to do was type. My senior year
of high school, I took an aggressive typing and shorthand class. But once I started
taking computer programing classes at FIU, I think it was Pascal or Cobol…there
was a programming language that just didn’t compute,” she laughed.

Brown changed
direction and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting with a minor in
Finance at Florida International University (FIU). Her college internship at a
travel agency was instrumental in finding her love of accounting, and it sealed
the deal.

“Everything I
had going on at the time seemed to point me toward finance and accounting,” she
said.

After graduating
from FIU, Brown married and moved from Miami to Jacksonville to pursue her MBA
at the University of North Florida while working at the St. Joe Paper Co. She
later joined Flagler Development, a commercial real estate office, where she
worked in accounting for almost a decade before landing at CSX Transportation in
2005.

“I worked there
for more than 10 years, in the Controller’s group,” she said. “It was a great
experience. CSX is such a well-established company, there were several
opportunities for various process improvement projects. I was able to do my day
job and go into the field and work with operations. The process improvement
fieldwork experience was invaluable and aligns with my job at Shoreside.”

After interviewing at Shoreside “I just knew I
wanted to work here,” she said. “I immediately called my recruiter. It’s just
such a great fit with my personality and skill set, and the leadership exudes
great character.”

‘Lifting as we climb’

Brown joined
Shoreside on Oct. 1, 2018. Her objective – beyond her meticulous controller
duties – is to better connect everyone to the company’s overall goals.

“Finance is not
always fun,” she said. “Having people reporting to me who want to be there and
do their jobs well is very important to me. One of our greatest accomplishments
has been getting our financial statements down to a granular level. Managers
are now seeing their individual responsibility to the bottom line. We’ve worked
toward adding those accountability sections, having consistent forecast
meetings, consistent recap meetings ­– we’re forward-looking now, not so much reactive.”

And the community of Jacksonville is taking note of Brown’s pioneering ways. She was honored by the Women’s Center of Jacksonville with an “Unsung Sheroes” award at the Center’s recent Women, Words & Wisdom event.

Photo by Brandi Hill (@brandihillcom/www.brandihill.com).

“I was truly excited,” she said. “I didn’t know until a week or two out that I was actually a recipient. Every woman who came across the stage – were humbled. It was humbling. These women’s contributions cut across so many career paths – it’s kind of like you’re part of a sorority of women who are trying to do good in the world.”

Doing good is
paramount to Brown. A member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for 25 years,
her community service work includes her 10-year involvement with the
Jacksonville Professional Chapter of the National Association of Black
Accountants. She sat on the organization’s Board for years before becoming vice
president and now this year, she was elected president.

“Our vision and
mission are ‘lifting as we climb,’” she said. “I’m most proud of the mentorship
program we started last year between professional members of our chapter and
students at UNF. This year, our chapter helped to start a student chapter at Jacksonville
University as well.”

‘Hard work isn’t an option’

Brown has been
married to her husband Richard for 23 years and the couple has two daughters,
Alyssa and Courtney. Alyssa is set to graduate from high school later this
month.

“She’ll be
attending a university in Florida where she’ll study veterinary medicine and
play volleyball,” said Brown. Her youngest plays Club Soccer, and the pair
keeps Brown and her husband busy with sports year-round. Add a rescue pit bull
Tilly to the mix, and Brown’s family is complete.

“My dad and my
mom and two of my brothers reside in Miami,” she said. “The rest of us are
sprinkled throughout. It’s been a journey, but I’m just so grateful to my
parents for their sacrifices, and I’m looking forward to my future at
Shoreside. I live by a great quote: ‘When you live for a strong purpose, then
hard work isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.’”

Categories

ABOUT THE MAGAZINE

People of Saltchuk was created in 2014 to highlight the hard working people dedicated to making Saltchuk companies the best in their industries. We think the transportation industry is fascinating, and hope you find the stories here interesting, inspiring and enlightening as you learn about the companies and people that make up the Saltchuk family. If you have a suggestion for a feature, please > contact Emily Reiter

Interested in working for the Saltchuk family of companies? Check out the Saltchuk Job Board for opportunities throughout the nation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

HILARY REEVES

Hilary Reeves spent 10 years as a newspaper reporter and editor before joining the Saltchuk family of companies as a consultant. Since People of Saltchuk launched in 2014, Reeves has interviewed more than 200 Saltchuk employees from operating companies all over the world. Born in Tacoma, Washington, Reeves is a former president of both the collegiate and local professional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists, a graduate of the Society’s Ted Scripps Leadership Institute, and a Toastmaster. When she’s not writing, she loves to read, ski, and practice the piano. She lives in West Seattle with her husband and two young daughters.